The present invention is concerned with a process for producing de-shelled or denuded brine shrimp cysts (Artemia Salina and all related species) in the form of dry, easily-stored and handled cysts that are satisfactorily viable and capable of producing brine shrimp cultures that are usable completely as food for all subjects of aquaculture. The method decreases labor costs by eliminating time-consuming processes of separating newly-hatched brine shrimp from unhatched and empty shells, eliminates the waste involved in discarding unhatched eggs since the denuded cysts are 100% edible even in their unhatched state, provides a product which tends to hatch more quickly in hatching cultures and by use of culturing techniques which are already known for the hatching of untreated eggs of the same type so that no new equipment or supplies are necessary, and provides a product which can be stored in less space and shipped at lesser costs due to the dried state of the product and its elimination of heavy useless outer shells.
Newly hatched brine shrimp are a vital food source not only for tropical fish breeders, but also for use in marine fish rearing programs and the entire aquaculture industry involved in the breeding and raising of food fish and crustaceans for human consumption. These industries all depend on this tiny food for feeding young and larval stages of their charges, and these industries would have trouble surviving without the abundant live food represented by brine shrimp cultures.
In recent years, environmental pollution and other man made conditions have reduced the supply of brine shrimp eggs or have, in one way or another, decreased the viability of the remaining eggs. There has always been a tremendous amount of waste in the culturing of brine shrimp eggs, but until recent times this was not considered significant since the supply of brine shrimp eggs was relatively cheap and seemed endless. However, as the quantity and quality of brine shrimp eggs has decreased, costs have soared in direct ratio to the decrease of the yield, and culturing techniques have become vastly more difficult, wasteful, and time-consuming.
The present invention, recognizing these problems, is concerned with a novel process which better utilizes the brine shrimp eggs which are currently available and which, by appropriate treatment of such brine shrimp eggs, provides a product which completely eliminates waste since the contents of a brine shrimp hatcher employing the product of the present invention are entirely usable as food. In addition to the storage and shipping advantages which have been referred to earlier, harvesting of a brine shrimp hatcher using the product of the present invention can be completed quickly and without the tedious steps which would otherwise be required to separate out contaminants and unhatched eggs, thereby significantly reducing labor costs involved in a hatching process while simultaneously increasing its effective yield.